MALVERN, PA. –Ricoh Americas Corporation today announced new features for its industry-first, award-winning Critical Communications solutions suite, further providing customers with the tools needed to achieve the utmost integrity and accuracy in their printed output. The new capabilities provide advanced tracking, reporting, deadline management and ticketing features to companies of all sizes. The latest versions of RICOH ProcessDirector, RICOH ProcessDirector Express and TotalFlow DocEnhancer unburden printers of the worries and efforts conventionally associated with ensuring integrity, meeting deadlines and applying media changes to print jobs.

The new features of the Critical Communications Suite include:

Add barcodes, integrate with scanners, and reconcile missing or misprinted pieces with the Automated Verification Feature for RICOH ProcessDirector. This feature brings Ricoh’s industry-leading ADF technology and easy-to-use automation capabilities beyond the mailroom to smaller businesses by automating reconciliation and removing human touch points, and it provides larger businesses with a simple, cost-effective way to track down misprinted pieces in their large volumes of print jobs. Users can now seamlessly integrate camera and barcode readers directly into RICOH ProcessDirector, making it an even easier-to-use, more cost-effective solution. Cameras and scanners can also now be used for more points along non-mail workflows, and for even more equipment such as booklet makers, cutters, and printers. Automated Verification Feature works with PDF, like the DocEnhancer Verification Feature, and adds compatibility with AFP files.

Set deadlines for jobs and receive notifications when jobs are predicted to miss the deadline with Deadline Tracker for RICOH ProcessDirector and RICOH ProcessDirector Express. This new feature affords printers of all sizes flexibility in setting deadlines and being notified if jobs are behind schedule due to taking longer than expected, or predicted to miss a deadline. Deadline Tracker intelligently tracks the path of conditional workflow to determine if a job is on track to meet its deadline, and dynamically adjusts deadlines to the attributes of a specific job, such as page volume. A full-featured workflow builder also allows conditional requirements within specific workflow process phases.

Visually view and set media, stapling and binding in a print job with DocEnhancer Ticketer.Logic-based ticketing through DocEnhancer enables users to easily and automatically define rules based on the properties of documents and contents of databases, ideal for targeted marketing efforts that depend on user information such as loyal customers receiving higher-quality media. Companies no longer have to spend valuable time splitting and re-ordering work to apply specific media such as stapling, but can instead keep work in a logical order that suits their most important needs, such as postal sorting.

“’What if’ is a question that printers, their customers, and in-plants can no longer tolerate. The need to track, report on, and easily automate their workflow process is more important than ever to ensure peace of mind and integrity for themselves and their customers,” said Theresa Lang, vice president solutions & services, Ricoh. “These latest features of Ricoh’s Critical Communications solutions suite demonstrate our momentum in offering an entire range of solutions for any company that requires the benefits of piece-level tracking. These capabilities can also mean the difference between being able to take on new types of work, while containing, or even cutting costs, or missing out on opportunities due to inefficient workflows.”

The Critical Communications solutions suite also allows users to:

Achieve 100 percent piece-level tracking and control and produce automated reports by mail piece or job

Assign workflow and automate job approval as a step within workflow using RICOH ProcessDirector

Enjoy multivendor support with the connector for Xerox and Kodak printers, a feature of RICOH ProcessDirector Express 1.2, which allows logic-based ticketing for shop-wide integrity

Track, change and report on output on the fly with RICOH TotalFlow DocEnhancer Verification Feature and replace time-consuming manual tracking documents and reports